


The World's Past You By

by Super_Theater_Nerd



Category: Dear Evan Hansen - Pasek & Paul/Levenson, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
Genre: Canon Dear Evan Hansen, Crossover, Gen, Post-Spider-Man: Homecoming, dear evan hansen - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-01
Updated: 2017-10-01
Packaged: 2018-12-09 15:43:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 15,557
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11672121
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Super_Theater_Nerd/pseuds/Super_Theater_Nerd
Summary: After defeated the Vulture Peter needed a break. He stopped being Spider-Man after school everyday. With his extra time he met some new people. A boy who went to his school and lived in the same building as him, Evan Hansen. And a girl in the school's Jazz Band, Zoe Murphy. At the beginning of eleventh grade something big happens and he struggles with being a superhero while trying to be there for his friends.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> If you don't know what Dear Evan Hansen is then you should know that it is an amazing musical and you need to listen to the soundtrack. I don't care if you say you don't like musicals just a do yourself a favor and listen to it.
> 
> If you don't know what Spider-Man: Homecoming is then you should know that it is one of the best movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. If you can see it in a movie theater it is totally worth it and amazing.
> 
> I came up with this idea when I realized that if the events of DEH happened the year after the events of Spider-Man then Zoe and Peter would be the same age. In DEH they also don't specify what city they live in and what school it occurs at. So it's going to take place at the Midtown School for Science and Technology.

As soon as the bell rang at 2:45, Peter booked it out of his History class. It was Friday which meant that Jazz Band was having rehearsals after school. Usually he would immediately start patrolling as Spider-Man but ever since he turned down becoming an Avenger he had been taking more time off. 

Earlier that week he had tried to rejoin the marching band playing percussion but his spot had been filled by some kid with glasses. Mr. Wilkinson told him that someone was leaving jazz band and he might want to join that. It was better than nothing so he agreed and was told to go to the Jazz Band practice on Friday. 

Room 400. The orchestra and band room. It wasn't even five minutes after the bell rang and the room was already packed. Well not actually packed, about as packed as it could get with a seventeen person band. The room was extremely loud with a lot of instruments being played, getting ready for the practice.

“Hey Mr. Wilkinson,” He spotted the music teacher in the back of the room fixing something with someone’s trumpet. The teacher didn't even notice that he had walked in.

“The key is just sticky, if you come before school Monday I can try to fix it. Just don't try play the fast parts today,” Mr. Wilkinson advised. Then he saw Peter and turned to him, “Oh, hey Peter. Glad you could join us today. Iris just moved schools and we need another bass player.”

“Bass?” Peter didn't even know that bass was part of the Jazz Band, “I actually play percussion so…”

“Oh, Nessa is actually playing the drums right now. Any chance you play the bass?” He looked hopeful.

“Uh, yeah. I haven't played in a while but I guess I could,” Lying straight through his teeth was no longer difficult for him.

“No pressure to join now though. There are three weeks of school left and you can sign up next fall. I'll save the bass spot for you,” Mr. Wilkinson assured, “Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a band to conduct.”

“Wait, don't you need a bass player still?” 

“No, Katie, one of the alto saxes, can play the bass pretty well. She can stand in for the last few weeks. Besides, we’re not performing again this year.” He explained.

“Cool, see you later I guess,” Peter started for the door but then decided that he really didn't want to try to learn the bass over the summer. He turned around, “Actually, I don't think I'll be able to do it next year. I have a feeling I'll be really busy.”

“That's fine,” This was why he liked Mr. Wilkinson so much, he didn't pressure anybody to do anything.

“Excuse me,” A girl with long brown hair raised her hand.

“Yes, Zoe?” 

“Is it rude to tell all of the brass instruments that they can all burn in-,” Zoe began.

“Yes, Zoe, that would be rude,” Mr.Wilkinson interrupted her mid-sentence.

“Fine,” She grumbled.

Something about her was familiar. Her voice. Her face. Her hair. Her name. Was she in his grade? Did he have classes with her? Then it hit him.

This girl was Zoe Murphy. They hadn't had any classes together for forever. Probably three or four years. Peter remembered that back in fifth grade they were in the same class and he had a crush on her. Not a serious, “I want to date you” crush. Just a childish crush that was destined to disappear within a year. 

He hadn't realized that he had been staring at Zoe until she gave him a confused look. He snapped out of whatever trans he was in just in time to see her flip him off. Peter took this as his cue to leave.  
\-----------------------------------  
“Aunt May, I’m home!” It wouldn't be a surprise if there was no answer, she was usually at the hospital, working as a nurse until five or six.

“I'm in your room!” A million questions ran through his head.

The bedroom door was left open a crack and he popped his head inside, “What are you doing in my room?”

“Waiting for you,” May was sitting, barefoot, on the bottom bunk and smiling at him.

“That's slightly creepy,” He dropped his backpack down next to the door, “May I ask why?”

“I just felt like it. I need to tell you something,” She corrected herself, “Well not really tell. But still sort of because I'm telling you to do something.”

“What do you want?” Knowing her it could be anything from asking him to go to the store for milk to walking twenty blocks to an exotic store to get a spice for a recipe.

“Today during my break I met another nurse, her name’s Heidi Hansen. She's a single parent and she actually lives in this building. They live a couple floors down. Anyway we started talking and I learned that her son goes to your school. He's a grade above you but I thought you two might get along.” 

“So, you want me to go hang out with him today?” If that wasn't what she wanted it would be a big surprise.

“Could you? Heidi told me that Evan isn't good in social situations and it doesn't help that she isn't always around between her job and school. I just thought that maybe having a friend that lived near him would be good. If it turns out you guys hate each other that's fine, you don't have to ever go over there but it would be great if you could go over today for a little bit.” She had started to ramble.

“Sure,” Peter didn't have a lot of homework and he could work on some of it at Evan’s house.

“Thanks, I need to get back to the hospital though. I tried calling you but it wasn't going through.”

“Sorry, I must have forgotten to turn it on again after school,” He apologized.

“It's fine,” Aunt May stood up and gave him a hug before leaving, “His name’s Evan Hansen. They live in 308. He knows you're coming over. Love you, see you at around eight.”

“Love you too. Bye,” He sighed and picked up his backpack again. 

In a matter of minutes he found himself in front of the door that lead to apartment 308. He knocked a few times and waited a minute. There was some shuffling before the door swung open.

Evan was tall. A lot taller than Peter expected but he wasn't intimidating. He was staring at his hands, avoiding eye contact with Peter.

“Hi, I'm Peter,” He chose against offering his hand for a hand shake. “You must be Evan.”

“Evan. Yeah, that's me. Gosh, I'm sorry,” The apology came out of nowhere but something told Peter that there would be plenty more coming.

“What are you sorry for?”

“You said my name then I said it again and that's so annoying. And it's the first thing I said to you and this is such a waste of time me talking so I'm sorry.” Evan rambled on.

“You can stop apologizing. I really don't care,” Peter noticed he was wiping his hands repeatedly on his shirt.

“Sorry. I did it again, sorry.” A beat later, “I should probably invite you in so, come on in.”

They ended up in Evan’s room. It was pretty obvious that his favorite color was blue. Neither of them knew what to talk about so they sat there in silence. Finally, Peter broke it.

“So, you go to Midtown High?” 

“Yeah, eleventh grade.” Evan talked almost too fast to understand.

“Cool, tenth,” This was getting more awkward by the minute.

“My mom tells me that I need to talk to more people and that's what I'm doing now. But she also says I need to talk slower and right now I'm talking really fast which is probably really annoying and really confusing. Sorry. Um…” The only thing slow about that was the um. “Is it okay if I go on my phone? I know it's really annoying when you're trying to talk to someone and they're on their phone completely ignoring you? I'm sorry, I should just talk to you.”

“Go ahead.”

Curious, Peter like looked over Evan’s shoulder to see what he was doing. He was on Instagram and looking at someone's account. There were pictures of guitars. A few of a group of friends. Peter recognized one of the girls in the photo as Betty. 

“Whose account?” He asked.” Evan scrolled up to reveal the username to be zokay.murphy. Zoe Murphy. “Hey, she flipped me off today.”

“Zoe?” 

“Yeah, after school I crashed the Jazz Band rehearsal and you know the rest,” Summarized Peter. Then he realized something, “Hey, you like her don't you.”

“No. Well yeah but nobody knows. Except for maybe you know,” Evan was kicking himself for letting it slip. Jared knew and he would never let him forget it.

“Why don't you tell her?” He was technically being a hypocrite because he stared at Liz for over a year before asking her out but that wasn't important.

“Well, last winter I tried to. I waited for her after a Jazz Band concert but then my hands started getting sweaty. And I started freaking out and I knew that it wouldn't be a good impression so I went home.” 

They sat in silence for at least a thirty minutes. Both of them on their phones. Evan kept scrolling through Instagram and Peter paid no attention until a certain video began playing. It was like a four-month old video of Spider-Man doing some sort of stunt.

“Isn't Spider-Man cool,” Evan said Barry louder than a whisper.

“Totally.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peter's last day of school featuring a lot of Zoe.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Before we begin I'd like to thank everyone who has commented. That's about it so on with the show.

“Everybody shut up!” This was the only way Ms. Freverstein could get the attention of the entire class. He demeanor changed instantly afterward, “Thank you.”

Ben, the boy Peter had gotten stuck next to in this class leaned over and whispered, “I am unsure if her telling everyone to shut up made her a good teacher or a bad one.”

“Mr. Warren’s class should be joining us today. He left for vacation with his family yesterday and no one cares enough to try to find a substitute for the last day so they're in here with us.” Not even a half a second later the classroom door was pushed open and roughly twenty-five kids flooded in. 

As soon as she told the students that they could choose their seats Ben was nowhere to be seen. Peter prepared to be left alone without a desk partner once again. Even with the combined classes the seat next to him was never filled. Some pairs were sitting on the floor too.

“Alright, I sure hope you like the person sitting next to you because now they’re your teammate. Peter, you can go solo.” She acknowledged, “I’ll call up two teams at a time and ask a question that won’t necessarily relate to history. It could be about anything. I’ll keep doing that until all of the teams have answered a question. The team that gets the right answer will move on to the next round where another winning team will compete against them and so on and so forth. Sounds good?” Even if nobody got it she would still move on, “Cool, Lauryn and Addie and Cameron and Nick. Write what you think the answer is on the whiteboard. You’ll get thirty seconds. First question, how fast does the car in ‘Back to the Future’ go to time travel.”

Both pairs whispered to each other trying to decide on an answer. With less than ten seconds left Lauryn scribbled their answer in green. When Cameron tried to write his answer the red marker he was using ran out of ink. Noticing this, Ms. Freverstein jumped in and replaced the empty marker with a new purple one. On a count of three, both teams stepped back to reveal their answers. Lauryn and Addie thought it went 105 miles per hour. Cameron and Nick answered that the car went at 79 miles per hour.

“You’re both wrong, 88 miles per hour. But Cameron and Nick were the closest to the actual answer so they move on,” She marked down something on a sheet of paper, “Emmie and Jack, Lydia and Ethan. You’re-. Oh, hi Zoe.”

Zoe stood in the doorway of the classroom holding a note, “Sorry I’m late, my science teacher had to talk to me then I went to the other classroom across the school just to realize that we’re meeting here.”

 

“That’s okay, you can sit next to Peter and be his partner,” She gestured to the only empty seat. Zoe only nodded and set herself next to him.

No longer was Peter interested in the game being played. All of his focus was now on Zoe. He was sort of staring at her and less than a minute later she noticed. Before that she was using a silver sharpie to scribble little stars on her jeans. Then she looked up.

“What are you looking at?” Zoe snapped the cap of the sharpie back on and slid it into her backpack. 

“Uh, nothing,” Peter looked away.

“Really? I’m pretty sure you were looking at me. I’m not sure why? The last time we met I flipped you off and typically I’m not on the best terms with the people I do that to.” She would have raised her voice except for the fact that she didn’t want to get in trouble on the last day of school. No teacher would try to keep her because they wanted to get out of there as soon as possible too but she had a reputation to uphold.

“Remember me?” He was hopeful but she shook her head, “Wait, sorry. That was creepy. Let me rephrase. Uh, remember me? From fifth grade?”

“Maybe,” Zoe questioned, “In your school photo did you look like you just committed a murder?”

“I guess you could say that,” He didn’t think the photo was that bad. 

“Did you try to create a secret handshake the entire year only to realize on the last day that I knew it too?” 

“No. Wait, you know it?” During all those years he always thought that it was only him and Ned who knew it.

“Yeah,” She finished, “And one last thing. Were you the kid who would not shut up about Iron Man and the Avengers? Okay, I lied. One more thing. Were you the one who made it very obvious that you liked me?”

“Uh, yes. And yes,” Slightly embarrassed that he was admitting to this.

“Yep, I remember you.” Zoe ended their conversation like that and opened her yearbook to a random page.

“Hey lovebirds,” Ms. Freverstein got their attention, “Your turn. You’re up against Jasper and Tyler.”

Jasper pulled her long blonde hair into a high ponytail before walking up to the front of the class. The two pairs stood face to face, waiting for their trivia question.

“How many teeth does an adult have?” 

Peter had no clue. He was smart and knew a lot but how many teeth he would end up with wasn’t one of the things he knew. Tyler and Jasper were discussing with each other and trying to decide on an answer. He didn’t need to say a word to Zoe because she stole the marker out of his hand and wrote an answer on the board then shielded it from everyone else’s view.

“Are you sure you have the right answer?”

“Believe me, I’ve got the right answer,” Zoe sounded very sure of herself.

“Jasper, reveal.” Ms. Freverstein instructed.

She pulled her hand away to reveal the number "32". The teacher nodded but kept a poker face, giving off the impression that she was not confirming that they were correct. Then she motioned for Zoe to reveal their answer. Correction, her answer. "32" as well.

“Both of you are right so I’m just going to ask another question and hope at least one of you screw this up,” If she ever made inspirational greeting cards they would not sell well. “What are the great lakes?”

He whispered to her, “So, are we going to have to discuss this or are you going to be little Miss Know-It-All and answer it for us?”

“Shut up, I’m thinking,” Out of nowhere she lit up, “I’ve got it, Superman helps everyone.”

“What?”

“Superman helps everyone. Or HOMES. For Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, and Superior.” She counted, “That means there are five great lakes.”

“Okay, let’s go with that.”

They won that round. Jasper and Tyler thought it was seven Great Lakes. Honestly, that was what Peter would have guessed but Zoe took over. In the next round they lost because they had guessed how many keys were on a computer keyboard incorrectly. Who knew the answer was 84?

During the rest of the class Peter and Zoe started talking more. He learned that she had an older brother who she did not particularly like. And she learned that he lived with his aunt and used to have an internship with Tony Stark. She wasn’t much of a superhero fan, they had a habit of reeking havoc on the city she lived in but found it interesting. 

The bell rang at 2:45 and a flood of students raced out of the school. Michelle hadn’t even showed up that day and Ned was still in trouble for what he said during homecoming. Because he had no one else to go with he mustered up the courage to ask Zoe if she wanted to take the train home with him. She agreed only because she lived a few blocks away from him. Well, that’s what she told him. Truthfully, the Murphy household was probably a mile or two away but Zoe secretly wanted to spend more time with him. 

They parted ways at the bottom of Peter’s building. Before leaving she wrote her phone number down on the corner of one of his notebooks. 

As soon as Peter walked through the door Aunt May pounced. 

“So, who was that girl you were with?” She asked curiously.

“Were- were you spying on me?” He motioned to the open window that looked over the street.

“Maybe, but don’t change the subject,” May was a man (or woman) on a mission, “Who was it?”

“That was just Zoe,” Peter tried to escape to his room only to be stopped.

“Zoe who? I’ve never heard anything about her. That’s probably because you were all over Liz this year but now that she’s gone I guess you found someone new.” Shrugged Aunt May.

“Hold up, I don’t want to date her. We’re just friends,” He tried to clarify.

“Sure you are,” Aunt May shook her head as she traveled into the kitchen to get a glass of water. She took a sip from the glass dramatically, “I bet you her phone number is on your notebook.”

“No it- Hey! How did you?” He exclaimed defensively.

“Because I did that once,” She drained the last of the water, “Believe it or not I used to be in high school. You’ll do great.”

“I’m not planning on asking her out!” Yes he did, he just didn’t want to admit it.

“Uh huh,” May opened the fridge and took out a can of whipped cream and shook it, “Just do yourself a favor and don’t bring her to Coney Island for a first date. It can only end one way and that ending is filled with puke. And don’t do anything stupid when you meet her parents.” She squirted a dollop of cream into her mouth before returning the canister and shutting the fridge door.

“Thanks.”  
“You’re welcome,” As she walked down the hall to her bedroom, “Remember that tonight we’re having Heidi and Evan over for dinner.”

“How could I forget.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, how are you liking it? I kind of have an idea of what is going to happen so updates will be pretty frequent, hopefully. I'm actually in rehearsals for a production of School of Rock and it's been crazy yet I'm still writing so that's good. I was wondering if I should write a short filler chapter about the dinner that the two families have together. The story isn't affected by this and I didn't plan on writing something for it but I certainly could. Once again thank you to those who have commented. It's really nice to know that people don't think I'm crazy for combining these two things.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peter goes over to Zoe's house for the afternoon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ideally I think I might post every other night for the next week. Hopefully you like this so far. Read on.

__________  
Peter: Hello? This is Zoe, right?  
Zoe: Yep. What's up?  
Peter: I'm really bored.  
Zoe: I'm pretty sure you texted me for the first time this summer to ask if I wanted to meet you somewhere.  
Peter: So, should I come over or should you come over here.  
Zoe: My dad’s at work and my mom is out grocery shopping. I’d say mine because it’s not everyday that I’m home alone.  
Peter: Where’s your brother?  
Zoe: At some crazy people camp in Maine. Can’t remember the name.  
Peter: Is it Ugunduzi?  
Zoe: Yeah, how did you know?  
Peter: Evan’s going there too.  
Zoe: Who?  
Peter: Nobody. So…. What's your address?  
Zoe has sent her location.  
Peter: Thanks  
Zoe: See you in a bit.  
Peter: Hey, you live almost two miles away. You told me you lived two blocks away.  
Zoe: Whoops, I lied. See you then.  
__________

“Hey Aunt May! “ Peter searched for his keys just in case May left while he was gone and he got locked out. “I’m leaving!”

“Hold up!” May came out of her bedroom and put her hands on her hips, “More specifically where are you going?” Ever since she found out about him being Spider-Man she had forced him to fill her in on where he was going whenever ever he left the house.

“I'm not going to try to fight an army of green squid people,” He sighed, “I’m just going to Zoe’s house.”

“Text me when you get there?” She raised an eyebrow.

“You’ll kill me if I don’t,” Peter recalled the first time he had forgotten to tell Aunt May where she was going. She strung together the most curse words he had ever heard her say when he had gotten back from Ned’s house.

“Good answer.” A second later, “And don't be out past 5:30. I want you to be home in time so we can eat before watching four Star Wars movies.”

“Got it. Bye,” He picked the key off the counter and left through the door.

Zoe’s house was big. When he first arrived he thought that he had the wrong address but soon realized it was accurate. It was slightly intimidating. He had expected her to live in an apartment building like he and Evan did. However this house was in a quiet neighborhood separate from the rest of the city.

Peter found the courage to knock on the door. Shuffling could be heard on the other side of the door and a minute later it creaked open.

Zoe stood there in the doorway. She was wearing jean shorts and a light blue tank top. Her brown hair was in a ponytail high up on her head. And she was holding a pair of black glasses in one hand and Huckleberry Finn in the other.

“Welcome,” She stepped aside to let him in, “Took you long enough. Thought you decided not to come or got snatched up by an evil falcon.”

“Do I look like the kind of person who would ditch someone?” He motioned to his face and smiled.

“Yes,” Before he could defend himself she continued, “MJ told me that at Liz’s party earlier this year you disappeared after two seconds.”

“Hey, I was there for at least ten minutes,” Something about what Soe had said stood out to him, “Wait, who did you say told you that?”

“MJ,” Zoe shut the door behind Peter, “Or you might know her as Michelle Jones.”

“Are you serious?” He’d known that Michelle had friends somewhere but didn't think that Zoe would be one of them. No matter how many times she corrected him he’d always say Michelle instead of MJ.

“Yeah, we were really good friend in elementary and middle school. We haven't hung out together much this year because we didn't have any classes in common and we were both busy doing different things after school.” 

“Hmmm, interesting,” Changing the subject quickly, “So, what have you been up to?”

“It's been quieter lately with Connor gone so I've been doing a lot of reading,” Zoe held up the book, “We read this two years ago but I felt like reading it again.”

“Right, I thought it was pretty good but the group project that Ms. Sanders made us do on it was horrible,” Peter recalled.

“Both Connor and I hated it. It was one of the only things we ever agreed on,” As she spoke she retrieved her glasses case from the bookshelf near the door. She slid them in and returned them to their spot on the top shelf, “Sorry, I can't leave my reading glasses around. Someone in my family’s going to move them if I do.”

The rest of the afternoon was spent upstairs in Zoe’s bedroom. They talked and caught each other up on what had happened in their lives over the first half of summer. Zoe convinced Peter to join her as she broke into her older brother’s bedroom and move a few things around. At around five in the afternoon they had found themselves sprawled out halfway down the stairs, bored out of their mind.

“Random question,” She lifted her head off the step, “What was going on with you this year?”

“What do you mean?” He knew exactly what she was hinting at but wanted to avoid it at all costs.

“I mean, where were you going everyday after school?” Zoe explained what others had told her, “MJ told me you quit Band, quit then rejoined the decathalon team, and would sometimes randomly leave. Stuff like that.” Seeing that he didn't want to talk about it she said, “You don't have to tell me if you don't want to. I don't want to pry. Just a bit curious.”

“Thanks for understanding,” Peter was thankful that Zoe wouldn't stick her nose in everything like some people he knew, like Ned. 

The front door swung open, “Zoe! I'm home.”

A lady in her mid to late forties came through the door. She had red hair pulled into a low ponytail and was holding a couple shopping bags. She disappeared into another room which he assumed was the kitchen for a couple of minutes before returning.

Seeing that her daughter wasn't alone, “Zoe, who’s this?”

“Mom, this is Peter,” Zoe chose the words she used carefully, “He's a friend of mine who happens to be a boy. Not a boyfriend.”

“Hello Peter,” She introduced, “My name’s Cynthia.”

“Nice to meet you Mrs. Murphy,” Peter gave a small wave.

“Please, just call me Cynthia. Mrs. Murphy makes me sound older than I am,” Cynthia joked. To Zoe, “Is your dad home yet?”

“Nope,” Zoe shook her head.

The door creaked open again and Cynthia turned, “Speaking of your father.”

Zoe’s father was on his phone as he worked his way to the bottom of the stairs. He placed himself next to Cynthia and then looked up. His eyes fell on Peter.

Before he could even ask Cynthia swooped in and explained, “Larry, this is Peter, Zoe’s friend.”

“Nice to meet you,” Mr. Murphy extended his hand and because Peter was lying on a lower step he was able to sit up and shake it.

Peter sensed that he should leave the family to do whatever they normally do, “Thanks for having me Zoe, I should go though.”

“What's the rush?” Mr. Murphy asked, “You're welcome to stay. And it's much quieter now than it usually is. Connor’s not here.”

“Larry,” Cynthia shot him a look and he shrugged. Peter pretended he didn't hear that bit.

“Oh, no thanks Mr. Murphy,” He’d never said Peter could call him Larry so he stuck with that, “I promised my aunt I would be back a little after five. We’re planning on watching the entirety of the original trilogy of Star Wars movies plus’The Force Awakens’ tonight.”

“Well okay, have fun,” Cynthia wished.

“Thanks.”

“See you when I see you,” Zoe had also sat up, “Bye.”

“Bye.”

As he opened the door to his apartment with the key he had brought with him he suddenly felt like he was forgetting something. He didn't really bring anything to Zoe’s so he couldn't have left anything there. Maybe he had forgotten to do something. Dang, now he remembered.

He pushed the door open and Aunt May was standing there with her arms crossed, “Hey Aunt May.”

“Sit down,” She forcefully pointed to the two person couch they owned. He did and she joined him, “What the hell, Dude? You said you'd text me when you got there.”

“I'm sorry,” There wasn't anything else he could say at this point, “How mad are you.”

“Mad, but not mad enough to cancel our Star Wars movie marathon,” Her voice softened, “Just don't do that again. I'm not acting crazy to be mean, I just care about you.”

“I know, and I care about you so I promise I won't do that again.” Out of nowhere she captured him in a tight hug.

“I larb you,” May really would never let that go.

“I larb you too,” And neither would he.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter will be mainly Peter and Connor. Probably will be the only time Connor is in a chapter and not dead. Well that took a dark turn, oh well.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peter's first day of school. He has a conversation with Connor and sees part of a letter he shouldn't have seen.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry I haven't updated but I just had shows for School of Rock and I've been exhausted. Hopefully this is a good chapter.

“It's showtime A-holes!”

What a wonderful way to be woken up for the first day of eleventh grade. And the icing on the cake was that it was 5:30 in the morning. A whole half hour earlier than he planned on waking up at. He was really regretting choosing to take an A.M. Period. Also know as taking a seventh class a whole hour before school would usually start.

There was more banging on his door and he tried to block it out by pulling his pillow over his head. 

Peter groaned, “It’s too early May!”

“It’ll take you roughly an hour to get to school on the train, tag on ten or fifteen minutes for you to get lost looking for your classes, and you should get going so you're not late,” She swung open the door and pulled back the curtain, letting in all of the nonexistent sunlight. The sun hadn't even started to rise. “If you get up now I’ll let you go to that Avengers meeting thing tonight up state.” She proposed.

“Really?” This caught his attention and he shot up. Originally May wasn't going to let him go because it was too far away and it was a school night.

“Yes, but it's a limited time offer so clock’s ticking.”

“Deal,” He sprung from his bed.

Of course she then set some conditions, “But you have to be back before midnight. Your homework needs to be done before you leave. And no running off to fight some evil space robots either.”

“There haven't been evil space robots since 2013, 2015 if you count that evil robot with the AI,” Peter argued.

“In most cities here have never been evil space robots.” She had a point. If they had moved to Arizona the summer before sixth grade like they had planned on, odds are they’d never see an army of anything taking over.

“You have a point,” He acknowledged:

By 6:07 he was out the door. The sun was finally beginning to rise as he walked down to the train station. May would have offered to drive him to school but she had to drive to work around the same time. 

The train was less crowded due to the fact that the sun wasn't up yet and he decided that waking up early was worth avoiding the crowds. School was less than three blocks from the train station and he pulled up his schedule on the phone as he walked. A few other students that were taking A.M. classes past him.

Peter found his locker quickly, it was the one across from his old one. He was familiar with where each of his classes were so he decided against finding all of them. This left him with ten minutes to kill. Ned wasn't taking an early class and neither was MJ. He didn't know if Zoe was but if she was he didn't see her.

He left a few notebooks in his locker then slammed it shut. When he turned to head down the hall he was stopped by a tall boy who was probably in 12th grade. He had long brown hair and was wearing all black.

“What are you looking at?” The boy glared.

“Nothing, uh,” He stuttered, there was nothing he could think of to say. “How’s your day going?” Oops, it just slipped out.

“About as peachy as it can get when you had to get up at 5:45 because your parents are forcing you to go to school when your sister does because she's the only one who can drive you to school.” He grumbled.

“Oh, that must suck.”

“It does,” His phone started ringing and he answered after checking who was calling and groaning, “What the hell do you want, Zoe?”

So this was Zoe’s brother. There was some resemblance between them. The big difference was Zoe was sweet and kind while he was rough and mean. At least that's how she described him to Peter.

“I don't care if mom doesn't want me going home alone, I'm not waiting for you after school. If you care so much then just skip band. But really, who has band practice the first day of school? It's not like you can-.”

“Ahem,” Zoe had appeared from a classroom, holding her phone and tapped her brother’s shoulder. He hung up the call and she stared at him, “It's not a practice, we’re just going to figure out who’s going to be playing in it again and who's spots we have to fill.”

“Whatever,” Connor rolled his eyes, “If you're not there after school I'm going myself.”

“Dad’s going to be really mad,” Zoe reminded.

“I still really don't care,” He replied smartly and started down the hall.

“Where are you going?” She asked, her voice was filled with frustration and anger.

“Somewhere you aren't,” And that was the last Peter ever heard from him.

Zoe crossed her arms and sighed. She should have returned to class but it was the first day of school and she could afford to be a little late. 

“Sorry about my brother,” She apologized and looked at her shoes.

“It's fine,” Connor hadn't actually done anything to him, he had no reason to be upset.

“I should probably get going,” Zoe gave a small wave, “Bye.”

“Bye.”

The school day dragged on slowly. He had first period with Ned. Second with Zoe. Third with MJ. And fourth with no one he was good friends with. Then he ate lunch with Ned while MJ sat a good four feet away from them, reading. Fifth had both Ned and MJ. But sixth he was once again alone.

The class was English and he was sat next to possibly the most annoying person there was. His name was Jared Kleinman and he talked way too much. Halfway through he had to resist the urge to tell him to shut up. Peter never knew how true the saying, “Saved by the bell,” was.

Unfortunately he still wasn't able to escape Jared. Before walking out the door Aunt May had told him to find Evan after school. Jared came with because he had to say hi to his friend. Or “family friend” as he put it. 

They found Evan in there computer lab, freaking out. Jared said hi then was out of there. Evan explained that Jared had to talk to him every day so his parents would pay for his car insurance. 

“So, why are you in here?” Peter wondered because nobody used the computer lab anymore.

“It's no big deal, everything should be fine.”

“Why does your cast say Connor?” 

Peter had observed that Evan’s cast now had “Connor” scrawled in big letters across it. This morning it had been empty, Peter intended to sign it but he had to get to class.

“Oh, it's nothing, really,” The way Evan looked away, he knew he should change the subject.

“That reminds me, how did you break your arm?” 

“Well between you and me I didn't fall out of a tree while doing an internship at a national park,” So that was what he had been telling everybody, “I did fall out of a tree but at that camp. I just don't want to tell anybody I was there.”

“I understand, I won't tell.”

Out of the corner of his eye Peter saw the top of the page Evan was typing before he closed the laptop. “Dear Evan Hansen, turns out this wasn't an amazing day after all.”

Something told him that what was going to happen next wouldn't be good.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm making Jared a year younger than Evan, deal with it. In the show they never say if he's in the same grade as him. Anyway, next chapter I'm diving back into superheroes but it will follow the timeline of DEH. I'd love to know how you're liking this so far.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peter attends the Avengers meeting and things inevitably go wrong.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm back. I was away all week on a trip and didn't have wifi. But including this one I have three chapters written.

“Who’re you texting?” Wanda had snuck up behind him and was looking over his shoulder. 

In the past month Tony had worked out the problems they had been having with the government. They released the ex-avengers and they were all meeting again at the Avengers facility to figure things out between themselves.

Peter had found himself left out of the conversations because he wasn't super involved with what happened in Germany. He had sat himself in the corner and was quite surprised that Wanda was talking to him. She was the closest to his age and he was closest to hers but still.

“Just a friend from school,” At the moment Zoe was complaining about Connor to him.

“Who’s Connor?” She had read the texts. 

“My friend’s brother.”

“Who's your friend?”

“Zoe, her names Zoe.”

“A girl?” A smile crept across Wanda’s face. Oh no.

“Yes, but we’re just friends.”

“Sure,” She said.

“Just mind your own business,” He said rather loudly.

Wanda was taken aback. She stepped back and crossed her arms, “I was just trying to be nice.”

Thank goodness Steve chose hat moment to interrupt with a question. 

“Peter, is it true you haven't been out as Spider-Man all summer?” Steve interrogated.

“Yeah,” He verified, “After I turned down being an Avenger, something I am still regretting today, I kept patrolling for a few months. Over the summer I gave it up.”

“Told you so,” Tony taunted.

“I hate it when you're right.”

“Speaking of you turning down the whole Avenger thing, are you willing to reconsider?”

This was so out of the blue that Peter didn't know what to say, “W- what? Are you serious?”

“Yeah, Steve and I want to initiate the Avengers again. Hopefully with the support of the government.” Steve and Natasha both nodded in agreement. 

Natasha who hadn't spoken a word to him all evening asked, “So, are you in?”

“Yes, of course. That'd be awesome. Thank you,” As he accepted he felt like he was forgetting something. Correction, someone. “Wait, I'll have to run it by Aunt May. I don't know if she’ll let me and she's my guardian who would have to sign anything that might need to be signed.”

“I'll work things out with Aunt Hottie, don't worry,” Assured Tony, “In the meantime why don't you get to know the rest of your team. You've been sitting in the corner and it doesn't look like you've talked to anyone.”

Peter nodded. His first stop was saying hello to Dr. Banner. He was having a nerd out moment during their entire conversation. Then he interrupted and introduced himself to Sam and Vision. Sam and Vision both seemed nice but they also seemed wary of him. They had also informed him that a few others that would join them at some point were not there including Thor and Rhodes before he moved onto thenext person. The first person he had a solid(ish) conversation longer than three seconds was Scott.

“Sorry I hit you out of the sky,” Scott looked at his feet awkwardly.

“No problem, it's been almost a year.” Changing the conversation that wasn't going anywhere, “I hear you used to be a criminal.”

“Yeah, regret it. But I have a daughter and I care more about her than whatever else I might have done,” He obviously didn't like talking about it. A touchy subject. 

Their conversation was so long only because the next words they exchanged were separated by minute long pauses. Finally Peter excused himself, said he needed to meet some of the others and that was that. Before he could get within a foot of her she stopped him.

“I know who you are, you know who I am. If not, the name’s Natasha Romanoff. That's not my real name but you don't deserve to know it yet.” She had a look in her eyes that made Peter a bit nervous to be around her. “I know what you did earlier this year and you can't act like that anymore. If you do, the people I care about will all die. And if they do I'm coming after you. Got it?” All he could manage was a gulp and a nod. “Good.”

The last one he tried to introduce himself to just brushed him off, ignoring him completely. He was talking to someone on the phone. 

Peter didn't know what to do. Everyone seemed to hate him. Maybe he was being a bit over dramatic but nobody wanted to keep a conversation with him. Though Wanda did, he sort of snapped at her and now she was ignoring him and talking to Steve. 

The clock said that it was only nine o’clock. Happy wouldn't be giving him a ride home for a whole hour.

But he couldn't stay inside, he snuck out the door and sat down on the steps in front of the facility. He was beginning to regret agreeing to the whole Avenger thing. If he had to live here with them he didn't know if he’d survive it.

In roughly fifteen minutes the door swung open and Tony joined him on the steps.

“Clint thought he saw you come out here,” Tony sat down next to him and said, “I talked to Aunt Hottie. She said that you can do it as long as it doesn't get in the way with school and stuff like that. You’ll also stay at home, you won't start living here.”

“Thanks,” Peter looked at his hands just to avoid Tony’s gaze.

“What's the matter?”

“Everyone in there hates me.”

“Of course they don't,” Tony wondered what had happened in there, “Why do you think that?”

“Sam and Vision don't seem to trust me. I made the conversation with Scott more awkward than when I asked Liz to homecoming. Steve shouldn't like me, the first thing I did after meeting him was steal his shield and try to capture him. Clint didn't even acknowledge my existence, he was on the phone. And Natasha made it abundantly clear that she was not a fan of me.”

“First of all, Sam and Vision still aren't sure if it's the right thing to let a kid do this so don't take it personally. Second, Scott gets over things really fast. It'll be fine, just give it time. Third, Steve does like you but like Sam and Vision he is still skeptical. That means you have to prove that just because you're young doesn't mean you aren't capable. Also, Clint was on the phone with his wife most likely. He doesn't see her very often so he doesn't like to be interrupted when he's talking to them. Once again, don't take it personally. And that's just have Natasha is. She’ll warm up to you in no time. Don't worry.” Tony realized he never mentioned Wanda, “Hey, Wanda doesn't hate you, right? Wasn't she talking with you earlier.”

“Yeah but then I yelled at her. Now she won't look at me.”

“Keep in mind that she spent most of her childhood trapped in a facility run by a crazy name with a name that sounds very similar to the name of that family in ‘The Sound of Music’. Her social skills are not great. If she still won't talk to you next week I'll do something about it.”

“I still don't think I can do this,” Peter stood up abruptly.

“Quit being such a baby,” Before walking back inside, Tony added, “You can.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For the sake of this story I'm going to pretend whatever happens in Infinity War never happens. In my world the Avengers reassemble and work together to... You'll find out in a few chapters. For the next two days I'll be updating daily. Then I have school. Yay.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peter finds out what happened to Connor.

Where was Zoe? She had been there for the first four days of school but was absent for the next five days. It was the second Friday after school had started again and Peter was curious to where she was.

“Hello? Earth to Peter,” MJ threw a mechanical pencil at him, trying to get his attention. “What's eating you?”

“You know, Zoe?” He was pretty certain that MJ knew her but wasn't sure Ned knew of her.

“Yeah.”

“Yeah,” Ned quickly corrected himself, “I know of her existence but I don't know her personally. Isn't she the Liz of our grade?”

“Maybe,” Peter didn't know that some people thought of Zoe like that, “Anyway, she hasn’t been here all week and I'd like to know why.”

“I'd offer to give her a call but I already tried and no luck,” MJ was also worried, only she didn't show it.

In the last five minutes of lunch an announcement was made over the loud speaker. There were always some issues with the sound level so there was some static before any words were actually spoken that could be understood.

“At the end of the lunch period please report to your fifth period class. From there you will go down to the auditorium for an assembly.” More static then silence.

“I wonder what it's going to be about,” Peter thought out loud, “Don't they warn us a few days before.”

“Yeah.”

Their fifth period teacher let them go after taking roll to find seats in the auditorium. They came in with the crowd and had to push their way through to get to an empty row. Peter was seated next to an aisle and leaned over to ask the girl across from him if she knew what was going on.

“Do you know what this’ about?”

“No,” She shook her head, “I heard it was about some kid died but there's no actual proof of that yet.”

Tried. That was they main thing. It meant that was everybody was okay. He didn't know why but since becoming Spider-Man he had been more concerned about making sure everyone was safe and alive. 

“Hey,” MJ whispered into his ear, “I lied earlier. Zoe did tell me what happened and I feel like I need to tell you that-.”

“Shhhh….” A boy sitting behind them shushed.

“Tell me later.”

“But-.”

Static. “Would everyone be quiet please. Please do we can get on with this. I'd really appreciate it if you could stop talking. Well then.” The lady who nobody recognized straightened her skirt and cleared her throat before, “Everyone, shut up!” The student body went silent. Her demeanor and tone of voice changed, “Thank you.” Continuing on, “You are all probably wondering who I am and what I am doing here.” A few students mumbled thugs along the lines of “no kidding”. There was something about her that seemed off. “My name is Jasper McCoy. I work with your school district from time to time and today I'm going to talk to you about something very serious.”

The same boy who shushed them earlier leaned forward and whispered, “Why does this sound familiar to me?”

Peter knew why, “Sounds an awful lot like how the seventh grade puberty talk.” Actually, that week the nurse had walked into the classroom, shut the door, and switched off the lights before saying in a deep voice, “Hello boys”. That nurse didn't last very long at the school. “Second thought, not really.”

“You may have noticed that Zoe and Connor Murphy have been absent for the past week or so,” Now Peter was fully interested in what this Jasper was saying, “Zoe will be returning to school next Monday. Connor however… I don't know how to say this. He will not.”

“What does she mean?” Peter asked MJ.

“It's what I was going to tell you,” She pointed to the stage, telling him to just listen.

“Last Thursday night Zoe and her parents were out of for dinner. Connor stay d back for reasons that are unimportant. When they were gone he committed suicide.”

Silence. Even though none of them knew or cared about him it was still hard to wrap their heads around it. Peter looked to MJ, she knew. 

The rest of the assembly was just talking about knowing when somebody needed help. He didn't pay attention. His thoughts were on Zoe and what was going on in her life. No wonder she wasn't at school.

During the rest of the school day Peter thought about what he should do. He considered visiting the Murphy's, after all he knew their adress. However that would be considered creepy and he already had a feeling that Larry was not a fan of him. But he needed to talk to someone who might know the Murphys like he did. The only person he could think of was MJ and he didn't want to talk about them with her.

Wait, there was someone else. Evan. First day of school he had Connor written in big letters across his cast. Maybe he knew something.

The next day, Saturday, Peter dropped by Evan’s apartment. May had told him that Heidi would probably be at work or class but Evan would definitely be there. She was right but Evan wasn't alone. Jared was there too. He didn’t know that they knew each other.

“Peter, I didn't know you were coming by,” Evan said quickly while slamming his laptop shut. Clearly hiding something.

“I didn't either. I just decided to swing by,” He casually sat himself next to Evan on the couch in the living room. Jared stood behind the couch, looking over them. “By the way, what is he doing here?”

“What do you mean?” Jared asked, acting more offended than he probably was.

“Peter, you remember my friend Jared. Even though you probably remember each other which makes my introduction useless. So, sorry,” Could he not go two seconds without apologizing?

“Correction, family friend. There's a difference,” Jared interrupted. “And yeah, we actually knew each other before last week.”

“Yeah,” Peter verified. He sensed things were getting awkward and tried changing he subject, “What are you working on?”

Evan looked at Jared for help, “Can we tell him?”

“If he promises not to tell.”

“I promise, whatever it is,” He immediately remembered the promise he made to Mr. Stark, “As long as it wasn't a murder or something like that.”

“Well,” Evan started, “You know about Connor now, right?” He nodded. “Before you came into the computer lab he was there and he signed my cast. I had just printed the letter to myself and was shutting down the laptop when he pulled it out of the printer and handed it to me. I think he was trying to be nice but then he read it and saw Zoe was mentioned and freaked out. He stole it. Then this week I was called to the principal’s office and Connor’s parents told me what happened. They think that I was friends with him because of the letter and now I'm trying to write emails to convince them that I was.”

“And I'm helping,” Jared had a thing with interrupting, “Care to join?”

“Sure, what do you have so far?” Making up fake letters for his friend’s family. What fun.

“Read it for yourself,” Evan logged back onto the computer and pulled up two emails.  
__________  
To: 3hans3n@gmail.com  
From: clmurphy2000@gmail.com  
Subject: It's Been a While

Dear Evan Hansen,  
We have been way too out of touch. Things just have been crazy and it really sucks that we haven't talked. If I'm being honest things have been really difficult. I just really miss talking to you about life and other stuff like that. 

Remember what you told me last summer. How you told me to quit smoking pot. Well I'm finally taking it into consideration because if I do maybe everything will be alright. 

I should probably start taking your advice. I guess being more nice could be a start. I'll turn it around. Just wait and see.  
Sincerely,  
Me

To: clmurphy2000@gmail.com  
From: 3hans3n@gmail.com  
Subject: 

Dear Connor Murphy,  
I've missed are talks. And that's good, stop doing drugs. Spend your time do other stuff like going on walks or taking deep breaths before doing things. I don't know where that came from, sorry.

I'll send you pictures of some of the most amazing trees you’ll ever see. If you have any questions you can check with my forrest expertise. 

Dude, I'm really proud of you for trying. Just keep pushing through and everything will be okay. You're turning around. I can see.  
Sincerely,  
Me  
__________  
“What do you think,” Nervousness filled Evan’s voice.

“It's good, but you need to make some changes,” Peter advised.

“Like what?”

“For starters, the whole part about the trees has to go. And it doesn't really sound like you or Connor,” He explained.

“Thank you,” Jared was acting a bit overdramatizing, “I've been trying to tell him he needs to rewrite those parts.”

As Peter edited a few parts and put in new ones Evan said, “We should make at least three or four more emails.”

“Got,” Jared had explain d that he would back date all of the emails when they were done. Peter typed a subject then asked, “So I should start it, ‘Dear Evan Hansen’?”

“Yeah.”


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peter and May go over to the Murphy's for dinner and things go wrong.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Enjoy. I probably will update every week now.

“Aunt May, Zoe invited us over to dinner tomorrow night,” Peter looked up from his phone, “Can we go?”

She was standing in the kitchen, chopping a butternut squash for dinner. “Sure, what time?”

A moment later, “Zoe says sometime around six thirty. Does that work?”

“Yeah,” She stopped chopping and stuck her head through the cutout in the wall in between the kitchen and living room, “Which Zoe is this one? Zoe Highmore, the girl who pushed you off the swing set in second grade. Zoe Brewer, the girl who owns twelve birds. Or Zoe Murphy, the girl whose brother just you know and has been spending time with you this summer?”

“The last one.”

“I was really surprised when I got the email from your school about what happened. Did you know him?” She asked.

“Not really, we talked once on the first day of school.” She went back to cooking dinner and he added, “Try not to bring it up tomorrow. It could make things a lot more awkward than it needs to be.”  
__________  
In between fifth and sixth period Peter hunted down Zoe. She had been avoiding him all day and he desperately needed to ask her something. Finally he caught up to her at her locker.

“Hey, I was wondering if I could ask you something.”

“I know what you're going to ask and I'm sick of people asking me it. But I know that I can tell you my real answer. In other words, shoot.” Zoe slammed the locker shut.

“How are you feeling? About all of this, I mean.”

“Knew it,” A small smile appeared for a split second. “Everyone else that asks I just tell them that I don't know how to feel. That's not true. I'm not happy that he did what he did but I sure won't be mourning him. He wasn't a good person and I dont think I should be expected to miss him.”

“But do you really not miss him?” Peter found it hard to believe that she wouldn't even slightly miss her brother.

“Look, I know you are an only child but still imagine this. Your older brother has explicitly screamed at you that he hates you and wishes you would just die every day since sixth grade. He has gone through your room multiple times and stolen things that he knows you need. Like your guitar or dance shoes. Also, everyday after school since seventh grade you have to get to your room fast and lock your door because he will spend the next two hours trying to break down the door as he says he's going to kill you.” She took a deep breath after her long rant and added quietly, “And the worst part is you saw him change into what he was without doing anything. If you were in my situation, I don't think you’d really miss him either.”

“Um, we should probably get to class. The bell rang.”

“Okay, bye.”

“Bye.”

Both of them would be late to class but that was okay. Zoe got her point across and Peter got an answer to a question he’d been wanting to ask. 

As he sat through the last period Peter thought about the second to last thing she said in her spiel. “And the worst part is you saw him change into what he was without doing anything.” He began to wonder if they used to get along. Suddenly he wondered what happened to Connor as they grew older that built a brick wall between them. Maybe he could find out some information at the dinner tonight.  
_________  
“Zoe, get the door!”

“I'm changing my shirt!”

“Larry, can you get the door!”

“I'm peeing!”

“I did not need to know that, Dad.”

“Cynthia, why can't you get it!”

“I'm kind of preoccupied in the kitchen!” A loud crash was heard along with a few sounds of glass breaking, “Nevermind. I'll get it.”

Aunt May and Peter looked at each other thinking the same thing. If their household was this chaotic with Connor gone. They could only imagine what it was like with him. 

The door swung open, revealing Cynthia. She greeted, “Hello, nice to see you again Peter. And nice to meet you, May.”

“Thanks for having us,” Aunt May stepped in.

“Yeah, thanks.”

The front door lead right into the living room. Peter and May stood there awakwardly as Cynthia called for them.

“Zoe, get down here. I know it doesn't take that long to change shirts. And Larry, choose better times!” 

A second later Zoe came down the stairs. She waved at Peter then turned to May and said, “Nice to meet you, Ms. Parker.”

“Firstly, call me May. Second, nice to meet you too.”

Larry came downstairs shortly after and the same introductions took place. Cynthia then lead them into their dining room and everyone took a seat. As they are their conversation was mostly light hearted until the end when everything took a nosedive.

Peter thought it was a great idea to nudge Zoe and whisper to her that he didn't think she hated her brother.

She immediately exclaimed out loud to everyone, “You think I what? For the last time, I hate him. You're supposed to be smart, how are you not getting this into your head?”

“Zoe, you don't mean that, do you?” It appeared that the only one in the Murphy household that missed him was Cynthia.

“Yes, I do. And you should too,” She whipped around to face her mother, “Every day you two would argue before dinner. He messed up so many of our plans. Connor pretty much messed up everything. You can't still care for him.”

The two guests knew hey should take the back seat and not get involved in this. 

“Zoe, that's horrible.” 

“Well Dad also feels he same way, he just doesn't say it out loud.”

“Do you hate him?” Cynthia’s voice shook, dreading the answer.

“I don't full agree with her but I think we need to just move on.”

“He’s your son!”

“He was a lunatic!”

“We tried to get him a therapist.”

“Yeah, and it didn't work.”

“It might have if you had let him continue with Dr. Hayes!”

Their arguing was beginning to sound more and more like white noise. By the end of it, Cynthia was upstairs crying. And Larry was somewhere upstairs in a rotten mood.

Zoe said, “I'm sorry you were here to see that. I don't blame you for wanting to go home now. Just close the door behind you. See you tomorrow at school Peter. Bye.”

She was gone up the stairs at well. They really shouldn't have accepted their offer. Halfway home Peter got a text from the group chat of all of the Avengers.

Tony wrote, “Peter, after school tomorrow come down to the facility. I'll tell you why when you get here.”

Peter showed Aunt May the text and asked, “Can I go?”

“Sure can, Spider-Man.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> School starts tomorrow and I'm staring tap Thursday, I have voice lessons again, and I think I have an audition for a school show next week. Craziness, hopefully I can update Friday, Saturday, or Sunday.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peter gets pulled out of school and stuff goes down at the facility.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm actually kind of sticking with the whole posting once a week thing. Enjoy.

“Oh my god, don't do that!” Peter was still clutching his chest from surprise. He whirled around and hit Scott who had randomly decided to drop by the high school.

Scott had been casually leaning against the lockers with a reusable shopping bag in tow. When Peter closed his locker and turned he came face to face with him and jumped a little. Scott had to stifle his laughter. Still, a few laughs came through.

“Aw, yuck it up,” Peter’s words just made his laughter louder, “What is it now?”

“Who says ‘yuck it up’?”

“I do. Shut up,” He then realized that the bell was about to ring and the rest of the school would be released. Peter had been called to the front office, worried that something had happened to Aunt May. “Now why the hell are you here? School’s about to be let out.”

“I know, I'm here to pick you up.” They stopped outside of the main office.

“But I don't understand, why wou-.”

“I'll explain when we get there.”

“Where are w-.”

“Avengers facility.”

“What about Au-.”

“Aunt May? Don't worry. Called her, told her what's happening and she said I could take you out of school.” Scott tossed the shopping bag to Peter and he curiously looked inside, “Dropped by your home and picked some stuff up. Aunt Hottie thought you might need some things when you're gone.”

“What do you mean, gone?”

“You’ll be staying with the rest of us upstate for a week or so until we fix what's happening. Don't worry, your grade is so high in school that the school doesn't care if you miss a week or two.”

Backing up the conversation, Peter’s eyes widened, “Wait, what? Since when have you called May Aunt Hottie?”

“Since I met her face to face,” Scott said smoothly, “Now I understand why Tony's always acting like that around her. Woo, how old is she?”

“Like forty-two. She’s my mom’s younger sister. But that's beside the point,” Getting back on topic, “Aren't you married?”

“Not anymore I'm not.”

“Oh good lord.”

The two walked through the office. Scott waved to the lady behind the desk and she smiled back. Just as Peter buckled his seatbelt in Scott’s van the bell rang. Scott slid into the driver’s seat. There conversation during the ride went something like this:

“So you really can't drive?”

“Nope, not yet.”

“You really are young.”

“What's that supposed to mean?”

“Uh, nothing.”

Halfway there their conversation topic changed:

“Can you really not tell me what's going on?”

“Sorry Spider-Boy, even I don't know much about it. All I know is that it has to do with a certain Captain and it's really important.” Scott added, “But you didn't hear it from me.”

Peter nodded. The next minutes were spent in silence. They pulled into the garage and it became clear to him that Scott wasn’t the greatest at parking. First he pulled in too far and they hit a storage box of some kind. Then he tried to back up but hit the garage door that had closed behind them. The car lurched forward one last time. 

This was what it must have felt like for May when she was trying to teach Peter how to drive. Terrifying. When Scott opened the car door and stepped out, he took it as the car wouldn’t suddenly move back anymore. He stepped out of the car and just as he closed the door behind him a fist came out of nowhere and hit him in the nose. A much too high pitched scream was let out from him.

“What the hell, Natasha?” Scott shot a look at the redhead who didn’t look the slightest bit guilty for nailing a kid in the face. 

“Yeah, what the hell?” Peter was too stunned to do or say anything else.

“I’m just doing what Tony asked,” Her voice was defensive.

“He asked you to bean him in the face?” Scott crossed his arms.

Completely changing the subject, “You’re late.”

“Don’t try to blame this on us,” Scott checked his watch, “And we’re ten minutes late. There was an accident on the freeway.”

“Still, Wanda has been freaking out because Tony won’t tell us why he needs to talk to us so desperately. It would have been nice if you got here sooner.”

“Was Wanda freaking out or were you?” 

“Scott, if you don’t shut your mouth I will hit you twice as hard as I hit him.” She threatened and this shut them up. Her tone changed, “Peter, follow me.”

Suddenly terrified of her, he followed obediently. They passed through halls that he was completely unfamiliar with (he’d have to familiarize himself with them soon if he was staying there for a while) and ended up in a large living space. Vision and Wanda were on the shorter couch. Sam was sitting on the rightest part of the longer couch. Clint was on the phone once again.

None of them noticed the three had arrived. Sam actually had been staring at them but must have been zoning out because it took him over a minute to acknowledge their existence.

“Oh,” He sat up straighter, “Scott’s back with the Spider-Kid.”

“Spider-Man,” Peter corrected.

“Whatever.”

Natasha went and tapped Clint on the shoulder. He hung up and the two began a silent conversation. Scott joined Vision and Wanda but had to awkwardly squeeze into the small space on the couch left. Peter just stood there like an idiot.

“I don’t hate you.”

“What?” Any of them could have said that, his eyes flew from person to person, trying to figure out who it was.

“None of us do,” It was Sam. Had Mr. Stark told them about their talk? Damnit!  
“I didn’t think you guys didn’t like me,” He tried to play the situation down but ultimately failed.

“Nice try, I know you felt absolutely rotten that night. I’m really sorry.”

“Yeah, I’m sorry too,” Wanda piped up.

A chorus of “me toos” and “sorrys” filled the air. Peter didn’t think they realized how embarrassed they had made him. He just wouldn’t bring it up again. 

“Where’s Tony?” Nat had ended her chat with Clint and was wondering where the man who organized all of this was.

“On the phone with Pepper,” Wanda had been observant and was the only one who knew, “Pretty sure he forgot they were supposed to go on a date tonight.”

As if he was on cue, the man they were talking about mosied down the hall into the room, still on the phone. The two were definitely arguing. 

“Strawberries. I found some nice strawberries in California and I can get them to you by tonight.” A pause. “Right, allergic to strawberries.” Another pause. “I’ll try. Just don’t kill me if I don’t show.” One last pause, “Love you too, bye.”

“It’s about time you showed up,” Clint had crossed his arms casually.

He was going to make up an excuse however Natasha, who Peter was realizing wasn’t super patient, cut him off, “Yeah, yeah, whatever. Let’s cut to the chase. Why did Scott have to go to Peter’s school and lie and tell them he was his uncle so he could pull him out of school? Why did Clint have to fly back from his family right after he went home? Where’s Thor, Dr. Banner, and T’Challa? And where the hell is Cap?”

“First, I didn’t tell Scott to tell the school he was Peter’s uncle, I just told him to get him out of there. Second, I told Clint that he didn’t have to come back. He chose to fly back. Thor’s somewhere dealing with his family issues and stuff like that. Not sure where Dr. Banner is. T’Challa is dealing with everything that comes with ruling. And Cap is the reason we’re gathered. That answer your question?” 

“Not really, we still don’t know where Cap is.”

“And neither do I,” Mr. Stark took a deep breath then continued, “But I’m pretty sure he’s trying to find Bucky, again.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not the proudest of this one but it's kind of important. In the next chapter there's a bit more Dear Evan Hansen. Some chapters will focus on the Avengers and some will focus on DEH. And rarely a combination of both. That will probably happen more towards the end though. I'm not sure how long this will be, we'll see. I'd love to get feedback on my writing. Thanks. Bye.


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peter learns how to play the bass and is taught by you'll never guess who.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think I accidentally almost put the title of a DEH song in this chapter. Oh well.

“Hey, Peter. Who’re you calling?” 

“What the f-?” He let out a rather high pitched screech and whoever scared him laughed a bit.

“Language,” Apparently this was something that the Avengers did. Every time he’d cursed someone had called out language. This time it was Clint. Was it some sort of joke?

“Sorry. Hold on a sec,” The last part was directed to the person on the other side of the phone. He covered the part of the cell phone that would pick up sound. Then Peter turned to whoever had startled him. Wanda. Why wasn’t he surprised. “What is wrong with you? You can’t sneak up on people who are on the phone.”

“Sorry,” She looked sort of embarrassed, “You were facing away, I couldn’t tell.”

“It’s okay.”

“Can you tell me who you’re talking to?” Something in her voice told him that she wouldn’t let him get back on the phone unless he told.

“Zoe,” He whispered.

“Zoe? The girl you were texting before? The girl you like?” Everyone in the room stared.

“Not so loud,” He mumbled.

“Does she like you?” Even though she was a superhero Wanda was still a teenage girl. She couldn’t help it.

“What? No,” Unfortunately.

“Then why is she calling?” 

“I don't know, she doesn't have anything to do? Usually she spends this time arguing with her older brother,” Peter shrugged, about to lift the phone up to his ear but was interrupted yet again.

“What happened to her brother. His name was Connor, right?”

Damn. If he told the Avengers about what happened all they would talk about would be Connor’s suicide. And he had been enjoying not hearing Connor’s name every two seconds like he did at school and at Evan’s. For some reason he had continued to help Evan lie. But he couldn't lie to Wanda, it would just come back to bite him. He'd just have to be vague. Really vague.

“He just isn't in the house anymore,” He turned away from Wanda then did a double take when he saw what was behind him. “What the…”

Natasha, Sam, Clint, and Scott(they were the only others in the living room because Mr. Stark had left to talk with Pepper and Vision needed to do whatever he needed to do) had been listening on their last part of their conversation. They too looked curious. There was no way out of it.

“What happened to Connor?” Natasha actually looked like she cared, for once.

“Well, uh,” All eyes on him, “About a week after school started, a week or two ago, my friend Zoe’s older brother offed himself. I don't know how, nobody has told me but he's gone now.”

A slightly muffled voice came from the phone but the noise was loud enough to be heard, “Peter! You better still be there! I've been waiting!”

He had almost forgotten about Zoe. Before any of the people around him could ask questions he raised the phone to his ear.

“Sorry, what did you need to tell me?”

“Finally,” Zoe sounded much more irritated than she did earlier when they were on the phone earlier. “Jazz Band auditions are next Wednesday. Anybody who did it last year is pretty much guaranteed to be in it so I'm not too worried about being replaced. But there's two or three others who want to play bass. Make sure to be prepared.”

“Cool, thanks for telling me.” Crap, he never learned how to play the bass over the summer. He was in deep, deep trouble.

“Off the record, where did you go? I tried to find you before I went to the pre-audition meeting but I couldn't find you.”

“Would you believe me if I said I was at the Stark Internship?” Hopefully the word hadn't gotten to Zoe that he “lost” the internship.

“Nope. If you had worded that differently maybe.”

“Listen, I can't tell you where I am or why. I might not be back next week but I swear I'll audition.”

“I'll get it out of you somehow,” Zoe paused, “See you when I do then. Bye.”

“Bye,” They hung up and Peter stuffed his phone into his pocket, “Does anybody know how to play the bass?”

“Why?” Scott was surprised that their conversation with Peter went from suicide to musical instruments so quickly.

“I promised Zoe I'd audition for the Jazz Band playing the bass but I have no clue how. Auditions are Wednesday.” 

“I know how to play the bass.” All eyes were now on Natasha. None of them knew that their friend had this talent.

“You do?” 

“Yeah, I'm not great but I can teach you the basics. Then we can rely on YouTube for the rest,” This was a surprisingly kind offer coming from her.

“Really?” He didn't even need to know Natasha that well to know that this was unlike her. There had to be some sort of reason behind it. But Peter didn't have time to think about that, he needed to learn and fast. It was currently Saturday which didn't give him much time.

“Sure.”  
___________  
One hour long journey to a local music shop to rent a bass guitar later, Natasha and Peter were sitting on the front steps of the facility. Surprisingly it was the quietest area to practice. 

Turns out that she was a better teacher than anybody would have expected. She was on the nice side even when it became apparent that Peter was not musically gifted. By the end of their three hour session Peter could sight read but needed a lot of practice before Wednesday. He could also play the riff from “Smoke on the Water”.

After thanking Natasha he was about to head to his room when she stopped him.

“Hey, I just wasted four hours of my life helping you. Sit.” 

“What do you want?”

“I just have a few questions,” And there it was. The reason why she was being nice. Reluctantly Peter sat himself next to her on the stairs. 

“Shoot.”

“First question, when, why, and how?” 

“And by that you mean…”

“I thought you were supposed to be smart,” Really she was joking, “When did you start being Spider-Man? How did you get your Spider-Powers? And why in the hell did you let Tony talk you into this mess he calls the Avengers?”

“Um, I got bitten by some crazy spider. A little over a year ago. And because I thought it would be cool.”

“I'm just going to tell you know that nothing we do is ‘cool’. As a group we have destroyed much more than we have fixed and I personally don't want to be a part of it anymore. The only reason I'm sticking around is because I care about Clint, Wanda, and everyone on the team and I don't want them to go into a fight without me. Because if I'm not there then I can't help them if I needed to.” 

“I know,” Deep down he'd always known that the Avengers were not all they were cracked up to be. They were awesome but they also faced things that could kill them in an instant. 

“Then why did you agree to join? You already said no but changed your mind. Why?” 

“If I tell you, you better not tell anybody else,” She nodded. He half hoped that she had shook her head. “I just need to get away from who I am sometimes. I don't always love who I am. When I'm Spider-Man I'm someone else. If I didn't join I knew that I would eventually stop being Spider-Man because I'd have no reason to. There's you guys to fix big things and I would always screw up when I patrolled the neighborhood. That probably makes no sense. Sorry.”

“No, it's okay. I get it,” Natasha gave an awkward side hug, “Three more things. Age?”

“Fifteen, I turn sixteen next month, late September.”

“Grade?”

“Just started eleventh.”

“Can you drive?”

“I have a learners permit.”

“I'm going to kill Tony,” Natasha jumped up and started for an entrance.

“Why?”

“None of your business!” She disappeared inside leaving Peter to put away the bass. 

Later that day, after dinner, Peter decided to go up to his room early. On the inside of his door he found the words “You Will Be Found” written in black sharpie on a piece of printer paper taped there. He took a picture of the sign, those four words could be useful later.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm quite surprised that I'm actually keeping to this posting schedule ish. Comment if you so desire. (I am totally not above asking for comments because they make me really happy and a boost of confidence.)


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> MJ and Ned are mad at Peter and the you know what is born.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry I didn't update. I was having bad writers block and rewrote this maybe four times. It's a pretty crappily written chapter so you've been warned.

“So, have you been avoiding us or what?” MJ was the kind of person that could show no emotion. There was a chance she was joking and there was a chance she was upset about it. Ned who had crossed his arms gave off the impression that it was the later.

It was Wednesday. His first day back. Mr. Stark told him to go back to school and they'd pull him out when they needed him. Peter’s day had been going somewhat well. He’d talked with Zoe. He was prepared for his Jazz Band audition after school. Now it was going to be ruined.

“I've been out of school. Ned, you know why I was gone,” If his best friend could back him up then he wouldn't have to tell MJ about his secret.

“Actually, Peter. I don't know why you're gone. You never told me,” He could have sworn he texted Ned, “I tried to text you.”

“Really?”

Peter was skeptical. Still, he carefully took out his phone, careful to make sure no teachers saw it, and opened his messages. He had ninety-seven unread messages that he had been ignoring. Maybe a third of them were from Ned. He scrolled through the texts and a lot of them reminded him of when he was bugging Happy.  
__________  
Ned: Hey Peter! We haven't talked much lately. I was wondering if I could call?  
Ned: Where are you?   
Ned: I asked May and she said it wasn't something she could tell.  
Ned: Please?  
Ned: Hello?  
Ned: Are you ignoring me?  
Ned: You are!  
Ned: Jerk!  
__________

“Oh, you were,” Peter just wanted to disappear, “Look, I’m really sorry about that. I’ve just been really busy and with the whole Connor thing I’ve been spending more time with Zoe. I’m sorry.”

“I’ll talk to you after school,” Ned wanted to talk to his former best friend without the company of MJ.

“I actually have the Jazz Band audition today, so…” At this MJ had rolled her eyes.

“I’ll call you.”

“I promise I’ll pick up.”

“I’ll believe it when I see it,” He turned and disappeared into the crowds of students into the halls.

“What are you hiding, Peter?” MJ added, “This time I really do care.”

She was gone in a second. He kicked himself mentally. If he hadn’t been so caught up with things that didn’t concern him he could avoided all of this. Peter wished he had quit helping Evan lie about his relationship. Peter wished he just turned down being an Avenger all together. He wasn’t cut out for it. 

There was a loud crash that momentarily paused the hustle and bustle of the halls. Peter ignored it, there was construction going on in the gym after all. Then there was another even louder bang followed by the lights flickering. In the end all of the lights shut off and the fire alarm began to blare.

Great. Instead of going to lunch, Peter got to find his section on the field. Each grade was broken up into four sections. There was no organization to it. You weren’t broken up based off of last name or birthdate. You were put into a section depending on when you got to school on the first day. Peter knew that Ned was taking an A.M. period too which meant they’d be in the same section. It could be looked at as a good thing and a bad thing. Good because they needed to talk and the fire alarm would give them just enough time. Bad because he didn’t want to talk.

Once on the field rumors were flying. Some were saying the basement was on fire. Some said the construction site exploded. Some saw something short circuited which set off the alarm. In actuality, a wire had been cut which caused the transformer to explode and start a fire in the basement. Everything would be fine but they would be there for a while which would give Peter enough time to talk to Ned.

“Hey, Ned,” He sat himself down next to his friend.

“Unless you’re here to tell me why you were gone I don’t want to talk to you.”

“I’ll tell you,” He leaned in and whispered into his ear, “Captain America is going looking for his friend who is super dangerous and they need to find him before the government does. I don’t know why but they pulled me out in case they needed help. It was taking a really long time so they sent me back to school.”

“Cool,” Any anger he felt towards Peter was gone. 

“Also, I’m sorry that I’ve been spending so much time with Zoe.”

“It’s fine, her brother did just die.”

“And I need your advice.”

“What do you need?”

“Should I tell MJ about, you know?” He gestured to the watch that Mr. Stark had given to him.

“Tell me about what?” One of her many talents was sneaking up on people.

“That my friend, is up to you decide,” This was Ned’s strange way to excuse himself. He stood and found an excuse to start talking to someone else.

MJ scooted closer to him, “ Are you going to tell me or what?”

“If I tell you and you tell someone else, odds are someone I know is going to try to kill you.” That person being Mr. Stark. “More likely he’d kill me though.”

“I’m kind of curious so I swear on your dead hamster named Humphery, I won’t.”

Mumbling, “I’m Spider-Man.”

“There’s no way in hell,” She said a bit loudly.

“I’m not lying. I am.”

“Prove it.”

Casually Peter unzipped part of his backpack where he kept his Spider-Man suit. She gazed in but was still skeptical. Not knowing what else to do he called Mr. Stark on his cell phone.

“Hey Mr. Stark.”

“Hey, aren’t you supposed to be in school?”

“I am,” He pressed a button so he was on speaker now, “And am I a superhero that wears a red suit and shoots webs?”

“Yeah, you’re Spider-Man. Last I checked.”

“Cool, thanks. Bye,” He hung up before Mr. Stark could ask any questions.”Believe me now?”

“Uh-huh.”

Later that evening after school and a boat load of homework Peter received a text from Evan. It had been a while since they had spoken.  
__________  
Evan: Do you want to be part of the Connor Project?  
Peter: The what?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Once again I'm asking for reviews. I have a horrible feeling they'll be negative because I don't like this chapter at all.


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Evan's speech.

“Ahhh!”

“I don't get it,” Wanda had a spider in the palm of her hand. Of course it was harmless, she wasn't that stupid. “You're Spider-Man and you're afraid of spiders. How is that possible?”

“Hmmm, I don't know,” Peter said sarcastically, “Maybe it's because I was bitten by a crazy alien spider!”

“He has a point,” Somehow Scott always was there to make some comment after everything.

“Shut up,” Using her powers she flipped the glass of water in his hand. The icy liquid spilled over his shirt and pants.

Scott returned to his room to change without a word. Scott’s reaction was not what the only teenagers in the facility thought would happen. They expected him to flip out but he almost looked glad to go change. Whatever, Peter ignored it. Peter, half asleep, put two pieces of bread into the toaster. It was Saturday, he wasn't used to waking up before nine. It was 7:15.

He yawned.

“Do you think Mr. Stark’s hiding something from us?” For some odd reason, Wanda had began to call him Mr. Stark like Peter.

“No, why?” This woke him up a bit more.

“All of the adults except for Scott and I are gone.”

“They are?” The response was a nod.

A door slammed shut. It could have been the wind but Wanda highly doubted it. She excused herself and went to see what caused the noise.

“Agghh!”

Peter started down the hall she had gone down. He found her near the door to the garage. There were a few hanging lights along the hall and a potted plant next to the door. Emphasis on the “were”. Now, half of the lights were shattered on the floor and the pot was broken into shards. Dirt covering the floor. Wanda was breathing heavily in the corner.

“Are you having a meltdown?” Probably not the smartest thing he could have said, but…

“I guess that's one thing you could call it,” Wanda brushed a lock of hair out of her eyes. “They left us here. Scott was just leaving.”

“Well that sucks.”

“I'm just so sick of them treating me like a little kid. I'm nineteen for gods sake!” In her rage, Wanda picked up a shard of the pot in a cloud of red mist and sent it flying towards Peter. Stopping it right before it hit him.

“I'd be happy to listen to you vent if you'd just refrain from impaling me.” She let it drop.

“Sorry.”

Peter then realized that his phone had been ringing. He answered it and immmediately regretted turning his volume up last night. 

“Where the hell are you?” He pulled the phone away from his ear and turned down the volume.

“Who? What? Why?” 

“Zoe. And you should know, moron!” 

“I really don't know what you're talking about.”

“Evan’s speech! It starts in less than an hour!” Oh shit.

“I completely forgot about…”

“Yeah, no shit,” Zoe paused, “Listen, just try to get here. It means a lot to Evan.”

“I'll try,” Now he had to figure out how to get a ride there. “See you soon.”

“Bye.”

“Wanda?”

“Yeah.”

“By any chance do you have a drivers license,” Peter could have gotten his learners permit but Aunt May had decided that because they lived in the city, he didn't need one yet.

“Yes.”

“Is that a lie?”

“Yes.”  
__________  
“So, what's our story going to be?” Peter explained further, “We’re going to have to make up some reason why you're here. How I know you. I can't say that you're my superhero friend. Well I could tell Ned and MJ but no Zoe.”

“Do we look alike?” Wanda asked.

“It's a stretch,” Their only similarity were the color of their hair.

“Oh.”

“Hey, people at school think Scott’s my uncle or something like that.” Thinking for a second, “You could be his daughter, my cousin.”

“Ew.”

“Step-daughter?”

“That works.”

They took a seat in the ninth row in the school theater. Wanda played some stupid game on her phone while Peter checked texts. Suddenly he felt a tap on his shoulder. He turned to see who had tapped him only to get slapped before seeing who it was.

“What the hell was that?” Zoe was sitting in the seat behind them, frowning. “Zoe? I could have sworn that someone else was sitting there thirty seconds ago.”

“I forced them out so I could do that,” Zoe turned to the lady she recognized as the school librarian. She tapped her in the shoulder with no intention of slapping her like she did to Peter. “Excuse me, Ms. DeCamp?”

“Yes,” The blonde turned.

“Would you mind switching places with me. Those two,” She gestured to Peter and Wanda, “are my friends.”

“Of course,” Something clicked in the librarian’s head, “I'm sorry to be nosy but you’re Connor’s sister, right?”

“Yeah, more people have known that lately.”

“I'm sure you've heard it a million times but I'm sorry. Zoe, right?” 

“Yeah, can I ask you something?” 

“Of course.”

“Why would you come to this? Teachers aren't required to come. Face it, Connor was a horrible person and nobody liked him. You have no reason to be here.”

“Zoe, a lot of kids go into the school library. Most of them because they don't have a choice and someone's forcing them to find a book. But then there are the few that came in voluntarily because reading was what they wanted to do. You'd be surprised how often I'd see Connor in there during lunch or before school.” At this point she realized that Peter and another girl was listening to their conversation. Ignoring them, she continued, “One thing students don't know about me is that when I'm not in the library I'm walking around the school, watching you guys. Not in a creepy way though. But I noticed really quickly that Connor didn't talk to other people or ever smile. The only time he ever talked to anyone in a civil way was to me when we talked about the last thing we both read. And the only time I'd ever see him smile was when he was in there. So I thought I had a reason to show up for this.”

“I had no idea. See you Monday I guess.”

“Yeah,” Ms. DeCamp stood up from her seat and Zoe climbed over the back of the chair and sat herself down next to Peter.

“Who's this?” She motioned to Wanda.

“This is my step cousin, Scarlet,” He felt Wanda judging him for the name he chose.

“Nice to meet you, I’m Zoe.” She gave a little wave.

Wanda lowered her voice so only Peter would hear, “Who’s Connor?”

“Did you say something, Scarlet?”

“She's wondering who Connor is,” He wasn't sure if Wanda knew who he was and was pretending not to.

“He's my brother. He offers himself like two months ago.”

“That's horrible.”

“Ehhh…”

She was cut off as the lights dimmed. Evan’s speech started off well but then he dropped all of his notecards. He began to desperately gather them together. Evan began sounding like a broken record. Constantly saying, “Um… Ummm… Um…”  
There was no way that he'd get them back in order. He’d have to improvise.

“Has anybody ever felt like nobody was there? Or felt forgotten. Just alone in the middle of nowhere. It felt like if you disappeared the world wouldn't care. And if you fell, nobody would even hear. I'm sorry,” Evan scurried off the stage.

“Let's go.” Zoe stood.

“Where are you going?”

“We need to talk to Evan and get him back on stage.”

The theater had erupted into chaos, people chattering amongst themselves. The three pushed their way out of the auditoriums and entered through the back that would get them to the wings. 

“Evan, you were doing great. What happened,” Zoe was the first to speak.

“I can't do this. I really can't.”

“Yes you can,” Wanda stepped up, giving him a quick hug, “It was really great. Just keep it up. Please.” Another hug but she didn't get let go.

“Please let go, I- please.” Evan looked desperately at Zoe and Peter, “Who is this even?”

“That's my step cousin, W-Scarlet.”

“Are you going to let go?” Zoe could sense how uncomfortable Evan was.

“Not unless he agrees to go on stage.”

“Fine, I'll go. I'll go. Just let me go,” She released him and nudged him to the stage.

“Good luck.”

The three of them watched him from backstage. Whatever he was saying was much better than what he originally was going to say.

“Well, you can let that lonely feeling inside wash away. There's a reason you'll be okay in the end. Because when you don't feel strong enough to stand or even live, all you have to do is reach out a hand. You might not think it but someone will come running. And whoever that might be will pick you up off the ground and take you home,” Evan’s eyes darted around the crowd of people watching him, “There will be times when dark comes crashing through and pretty much crushes you. In those times you'll need a friend to carry you even more. Even if you're completely broken on the ground, someone will find you. Then the sun will come streaming in and you'll reach up and rise once more. Just look around at all the people that care about you. You will be found.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Expect updates every two weeks. I know that Evan doesn't leave the stage but he does in this fanfiction. In other news I'm running out of ideas for this story. It'll probably come to an unsatisfying ending next chapter. But I do have an idea for another story. 
> 
> This summer I read a book called Four Weeks, Five people. It was about a camp for kids with disorders. I kept imagining Evan and Connor going there. If you haven't read it thoug, read it. It's so good.


End file.
